Top Reasons for Owning Cash Value Life Insurance: #2 Leverage

Finance is a funny topic. For some it means little more than buying some low cost index funds and not accumulating massive amounts of debt. For others it’s mostly about contributing to a 401k or traditional IRA so they can raise a middle finger to the IRS (but the IRS may get the last laugh). For us, it’s a game of strategy.

A semi-complex circumstance that requires foresight and focuses on bigger picture considerations rather than drill hopelessly into situational (and most commonly transient) event. The game is best played when one can gain an upper hand. And few financial products bring leverage to the table like cash value life insurance.

The Key that Unlocks Doors

Permanent life insurance is the key that unlocks doors to an array of options others commonly wish they had. It unlocks assets and provides the liberty to access money in a way that can seriously augment retirement income, and this has nothing to do with using life insurance for income purposes.

Keep in mind that what life insurance does at its most fundamental application (indemnify a loss) can be employed in a multitude of ways. We all know the most obvious situation involving the indemnification of lost wages when someone dies prematurely, but there are several other indemnification opportunities that life insurance (specifically permanent life insurance) brings to the table.

Opening up other Assets

Remember when reverse mortgages were all the rage? The only draw back was the fact that you had to essentially give up your house when you died. A small price to pay to ensure you aren’t on the Meow Mix Diet and the kids don’t care about the house anyway, they just want to make sure that you are okay and living comfortably.

But what if you had the ability to take the reverse mortgage and ensure that money existed to repay the mortgage when you died?

Or what about the way you withdraw money from your other assets. For many people this is a painful dilemma made so difficult by the fact that they don’t know when they are going to die and when there is a spouse in the picture we can’t simply leave him or her to figure it out afterwards. Permanent life insurance enables more liberal access to funds in retirement (apologies for the terrible recording quality, it's an old video):

httpv://youtu.be/z1mbPCnmhpQ

And of course, there’s the well established Pension Max. A method for retirement income optimization we’ve been using for years, and a method that works way better if you buy the permanent life insurance earlier in life.

Retirement is Expensive

For most Americans, the single most financially disastrous event in their lives will be retirement. You spend umpteen years slaving away for the man and socking away money so that one day you take that nut and systematically piss it away. We do this willingly and intentionally.

But what if we could recoup some (or all) of the expense associated with retirement? Impossible? No.

The same product that you use to ensure your spouse and kids are taken care of financially if you’re not around, can be used to ensure your hard earned money accomplishes more than just buying bingo cards and prescriptions meds.

Accessing the Death Benefit before you Die

In addition to having the ability to act as a backstop to your finances in retirement, permanent life insurance contracts often have accelerated death benefit options that are generally automatically issued on a contract.

These benefits provide access to the death benefit prior to the death of the insured in the event the insured becomes terminally or chronically ill. These benefits can be a great complement (and in some cases a surrogate) to Long Term Care Insurance.

Cash value life insurance is a powerful financial tool that can accomplish an array of goals and placing it in your quiver (when done correctly and appropriately) can make you incredibly well prepared for whatever the future may hold.

Brandon launched the Insurance Pro Blog in July of 2011 as a project to de-mystify the life insurance industry. Brandon was born in Northern New England, and he currently calls VT home. He attended Syracuse University and graduated with a triple major in Economics, Public Administration, and Political Science.